BRAVO"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice says she and husband Joe were able to withdraw their bankruptcy claim because some of the buildings her husband owned were sold by the bank.

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice used her Bravotv.com blog to get a lot off her chest. Two days after the season four premiere, in which Teresa is practically persona non grata in Franklin Lakes, she explains that she's "in a much better place now than I was a year ago," when the season four was filmed, thanks in part to appearing on "Celebrity Apprentice" and helping to raise money for children with kidney disease: "I feel so blessed to have healthy friends and family, and I never want to take that for granted by focusing on petty drama like gossip and tabloids."

And then she focuses on pretty drama like gossip and tabloids. Here's the upshot:

1) How she got out from under bankruptcy: She explains that she and husband Joe Giudicefiled for bankruptcy in 2010 because the tenants in the apartment buildings he owned couldn't their rent, so he couldn't pay his mortgage. But the banks were able to sell the buildings, which resolved most of their debt. "It was a very tough year, especially having pieces of it misreported in the media, but we made it through," she writes. She makes no mention of the lawsuit filed by the bankruptcy court trustee in which she and Joe were accused of concealing assets, a federal crime. According to the consent order, Teresa agreed to waive discharge of her debts, and acknowledged that she wanted to resolve the proceedings against her "without the need for further inquiry or litigation, and without her making any further admissions." Other court papers revealed that Joe pleaded the Fifth Amendment when asked about hidden assets.

2. Those "jokes" in her cookbooks: In the season three finale, some lines in her latest cookbook raised hackles with the Manzo clan. Among them, that Caroline Manzo is as Italian as the Olive Garden, a joke she made many months earlier during a meatball showdown on "The Rachael Ray Show." That bit of trash talk was actually suggested to her by one of the show staffers. She says no one objected to the joke until the book came out. She also says she only objected to Chris Manzo's adult car wash idea in the sense that she wouldn't want her daughters to work there.

"Last year the Manzos, Wakiles and Gorgas made fun of Skinny Italian, my intelligence, my kids, my swimsuits, my house, my voice, my husband, and a million other things. On national TV in front of millions of people," she writes. "It's cool. I know they're jokes and I know they love me. That's how we ALL are. Why suddenly are my tiny jokes in my second cookbook only so upsetting to everyone? How come everyone laughs when Richie "jokes" that he would "burn that bitch on a stake" (meaning me), but my "jokes" are so over-the-line that everyone is upset?"

3. The stripper rumors: After the exceedingly bitter season three reunion show, it was rumored that the other ladies were angry at Teresa for reportedly spreading rumors that her sister-in-law Melissa Gorga was once a stripper. Teresa explains that she had heard "really nasty rumors around town" about Melissa and brought them up to Joe Gorga, her brother, in private. "I would never, ever want to repeat a rumor like that about any of my family members in public. That only hurts my family," she says. But two months later, while they were filming season four, her brother brought up the rumors out of the blue while the cameras were rolling. "The only thing that's going to do is make his family look bad and his wife and me have problems again," she writes. (See? She's not stupid!) "I'm really trying, but I just don't understand. I'm so sorry he told Melissa, I'm sure it hurt her like it would hurt my husband if I told him. I guess I'm learning that our relationship might never be as close as it once was."